Abstract
In ‘Foundationalism, Coherentism, and the Levels Gambit’, David Shatz argued that foundationalists must countenance a circular mediate justification of perceptual beliefs which the foundationalist holds are already immediately justified. Because the circularity of coherentist accounts of the justification of beliefs is a major basis of foundationalist criticism of coherentism, Shatz's claim is a serious challenge to foundationalism. In this paper, using a moderate foundationalism with a reliabilist conception of justification, I give an account of immediately and mediately justified beliefs which shows that such a foundationalism need not accept such a circular justification (and in crucial cases cannot do so) and that Shatz's claim is therefore incorrect.
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Keller, J.A. Foundationalism, circular justification, and the levels gambit. Synthese 68, 205–212 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413831
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413831